Dalglish focusing only on Reds

18 November 2011 08:46

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish will focus on his own players and not those of Chelsea - who include some familiar faces - ahead of their meeting on Sunday.

After taking over in early January, Dalglish had striker Fernando Torres for less than a month before his £50million move to Stamford Bridge. The Scot appeared to get the best out of midfielder Raul Meireles, who scored five goals in six matches in the first two months of Dalglish's return to Anfield including the winner at Chelsea in February, but he too switched to the Blues in August.

Their departures, seven months apart, helped fund a rebuilding process under Dalglish and those are the players he will be focusing on this weekend. Asked about Torres, who has scored just three Barclays Premier League goals and two Champions League goals (both in the same match against minnows Genk) for Chelsea since his move, Dalglish said: "Nothing to do with us."

That was the end of the discussion as far as the Reds boss was concerned, who does not buy into theories about gaining extra motivation from facing former team-mates.

"Different people find different goals to try to achieve what they want but what we want is three points," he said.

"Our most important thing is to get three points; how we do it and how each individual sets themselves up to do it is up to them. But we will go there and try our best to repeat last year's result.

"We beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last season but we have to go there in a different season with a different manager and different players so we can't assume because we did well last year we will do well this year."

Dalglish made seven signings in the summer to add to the two he brought in last January. Those players have fitted in with varying degrees of success so far but the Reds boss has no doubts they have selected the right people.

"It might take a bit of getting used to it but it is not because they don't have the ability to do that," he added. "Some will come in and settle straight away and I think every one of them has come in and settled quickly. Some players will find the burden of expectation difficult to get used to but not these players.

"For us we are happy with what we have got. We are convinced we have the right people and we are also happy they are not going to be afraid of playing for this club and the traditions it has."